Basically I’ve acquired a burner Android 8 phone and am running the target.com app which is the only way they let you get parking lot delivery at the store. I assume the Target app is spyware. I keep the phone powered off almost all the time which should limit the spying. The thing is, if I power up the phone and order something, then close the app, I still get an alert when the status of the order changes (e.g. it’s ready for pickup). So the app is still listening for network traffic from Target.

Can anyone explain what is happening in Android and whether there is a way to make an app really stop? Does the app stay in a running state even after I’ve closed the UI part of it? Is there somethng like an inetd in Android that listens for network alerts and re-launches the destination app? Are there Android app permissions associated with this, that I can revoke?

I don’t want to run this type of app on my main phone, but I had at first liked the idea of using a burner for such things. Now, though, I wonder if I need a separate burner for each suspicious app. Thanks.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
    364·
    2 days ago

    I definitely use a different burner phone for every app. It’s obviously the only sane way to use apps. Ive got my email phone. My weather phone. My alarm phone. A phone for each one of my contacts. Right now Im on my lemmy-only phone, with all of the others powered off and in thier separate faraday bags. Having a separate phone just for the app I use to order something is a must. How dare they tell me the status of the order I paid for? Who do they think they are!? On Sundays I use my magnet wand and wipe each and every phone, just to be sure.

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
        51·
        1 day ago

        Needs to include “I have no friends, my family are all horrible, and people of the opposite sex don’t pay me any attention” to get closer to average.

    • solrize@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      76·
      2 days ago

      I realize you’re being facitious but as a matter of fact, the Target app (plus Google Play) are the only apps I have installed so far that didn’t come from F-droid. Google Play was needed to install the Target app. I figure that the F-droid apps have had enough vetting that I tend to not worry about them too much. I have never installed or used Google Play on my “real” phone. I only installed it on the burner in order to install the target app there.

      I confess to occasionally using some of the preinstalled google apps on my main phone, such as the camera app. I will get around to checkng out F-droid versions one of these days.